The Attack

On peut tout te prendre; tes biens, tes plus belles années, l'ensemble de tes joies, et l'ensemble de tes mérites, jusqu'à ta dernière chemise. Il te restera toujours tes rêves pour réinventer le monde que l'on t'a confisqué...

We're fine together, just like this: Our silence protects us from ourselves

You're all the world to me. Whenever i can't see you... I die a little.

There's nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than your life. And your life isn't more important than other people's lives.

Anyone who tells you that a greater symphony exists than the breath in your body is lying.

But she was so happy in her gilded cage, wasn’t she? She ate well, slept well, enjoyed herself She lacked nothing. And then, look, a bunch of mental cases turn her away from her happiness and send her to -- how did you put it? -- to ‘blow herself away’?. The good doctor lives next door to a war but he doesn’t want to hear a word about it. And he thinks his wife shouldn’t worry about it, either. … We’re at war. Some people take up arms; others twiddle their thumbs. And still others make a killing in the name of the Cause. That’s life. … Your wife chose her side. The happiness you offered her smelled of decay. It repulsed her, you get it? She didn’t want your happiness. She couldn’t work on her suntan while her people were bent under the Zionist yoke. Do I have to draw you a picture to make you understand, or do you refuse to look reality in the face?

What's a house when you've lost a country?' she says with a sigh.

Even though I was growing up in a land that had been tormented since the dawn of time, I refused to consider the world as a battlefield.

Existence has taught me that a man can live on love and fresh water, on crumbs and promises, but he can never survive insults. And insults are all I've known since I came into the world. Every morning. Every evening. That's all I've seen for my whole life.

Whose truth do you want to know, Dr. Amin Jaafari? The truth of a Bedouin who thinks he’s free and clear because he’s got an Israeli passport? The truth of a serviceable Arab per excellence who’s honored wherever he goes, who gets invited to fancy parties by people who want to show how tolerant and considerate they are? The truth of someone who thinks he can change sides like changing a shirt, with no trace left behind? Is that the truth you’re looking for, or is it the one you’re running away from? What planet do you live on, sir? … Our cities are being buried by machines on caterpillar tracks, our patron saints don’t know which way to turn, and you, simply because you’re nice and warm in your golden cage, refuse to see the inferno consuming us.

Amin, you’re not making sense to me. Things have always been this way, since the beginning of time. Some die so others can be saved. You don’t believe in the salvation of others?

They can take everything you own --your property, your best years, all your joys, all your good works, everything down to your last shirt-- but you'll always have your dreams, so you can reinvent your stolen world.

Thy can take everything you own --your property, your best years, all your joys, all your good works, everything down to your last shirt --but you'll always have your dreams, so you can reinvent your stolen world.

The Jew is born as free as the wind, as indomitable as the Judean desert. Why did he mark the boundaries of his homeland so carelessly that it was nearly taken from him? Because for a long time he believed that the Promised Land is, first and foremost, the land where there's no wall to keep him from seeing farther than his cries can carry.

But how can I accept blindness in order to be happy? How can a man turn his back on himself without coming face-to-face with his own negation? You can't water a flower with one hand and pluck it with the other. When you put a rose in a vase, you don't restore its charm; you denature it. You think you're beautifying your room, but in fact, all you're doing is disfiguring your garden.

In Jerusalem, people are very cautious in the morning, out of superstition: The first words and deeds at dawn, it's said, usually shape the rest of the day.

Ce n'est pas la première fois qu'un attentat secoue Tel-Aviv, et les secours sont menés au fur et à mesure avec une efficacité grandissante. Mais un attentat reste un attentat. A l'usure, on peut le gérer techniquement, pas humainement. L'émoi et l'effroi ne font pas bon ménage avec le sang froid. Lorsque l'horreur frappe, c'est toujours le coeur qu'elle vise le premier.